Croatian island businesses' revenues grow 10 pct in 2015

During 2015, a total of 3,933 entrepreneurs did business on Croatian islands, and their revenues totalled HRK 9.7 billion, up 9.9% from 2014, according to figures collected by the Financial Agency (FINA).

The number of entrepreneurs with businesses registered on Croatia's islands, that is in 51 island towns and municipalities, also increased in 2015 by 2.7% on the year.

The number of workers on their payrolls jumped by 4.5% to 20,364.

The highest number of businesses was registered on Krk, the most populated Croatian island. The town of Krk and other municipalities on that northern island had a total of 783 registered businesses that employed 4,844 workers.

The southern island of Brac off Split had 581 enterprises with 2,556 employees.

Broken down by type of business, tourist trade was the most lucrative in 2015 with 2.4 billion kuna in revenues which was a 24.5% of the total revenues.

The second most dominant business was wholesale and retail trade (2.1 billion kuna), and was followed by the manufacturing industry (HRK 1.29 billion) and construction (HRK 1.26 billion), as well as agriculture and fisheries (HRK 677.2 million).

The highest productivity per employee in 2015 was recorded on Krk, with the revenue of 575,900 kuna per employee.

Croatia boasts of 1,244 islands and islets, and 47 of them are permanently populated. According to the 2011 census, 344 settlements on islands had 132,756 inhabitants, which was by 7,886 more than in 2001.

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